There is always a Choice
by Thekkr
Summary: A alternate interpretation of the "refusal" ending from ME3 that is non - cannon but lore friendly. This follows Shepard on the citadel and also in the aftermath of the Reaper War.


After The End.

Shepard stared at the glowing outline of a child standing before her as the battle raged on outside the walls of the citadel. The form that had laid at her feet the awful choice that would determine the fate of the Galaxy.

"what are you?" she asked the form.

"We are the catalyst." the form responded, not in the legion voice of a Reaper but in that of a child. "this form was shaped from your memory, to aid communication."

"Communication? What are you, a Prothian relic?"

"No, not a Relic, we are the voice of the Reapers the heart and mind of the fleet."

"The mind? But the reapers are individuals, individuals made of us!"

"You are correct, but do not possess the full truth. For every Reaper born on the citadel a pair of entangled molecules are created, based off the technology of our creators they allow Reapers to communicate across the stars. This construct contains the linked pairs for all Reapers, maintained in a hive mind the individual and the whole give rise to this voice and guide for all."

"So you are the Reapers?"

"Yes much as the construct you fought on the Citadel was Sovereign at the same time the ship was Sovereign, This connection allows us to merge forming the joint intellect of the Reapers."

"If you have been here all this time, why act only now?"

"Before now we did not have what your kind calls the Crucible, in past cycles it was not needed, but this room is cut off from the rest of the station to preserve the Catalyst. The actions of the Protheans has weakened our control of the Keepers, they now answer only to the Citadel. This is why your cycle got so far, why a new solution was required, a better solution."

"You talk as if the Crucible was your idea, we know it was the work of countless races!"

"And who was their understanding based on? We where not ignorant of their actions, the Crucible requires the Citadel to function. You blindly built the crucible tuning it to destroy your enemy without thinking whom first outlined the plans. The true nature of the device is decided here. By you."

Shepard looked at the figure and then down at Earth, the planet now burning ships locked in battle with the Reaper forces in orbit. She could feel blood loss beginning to take effect, slowly turning back to the Catalyst she coughed before saying "You say you are the Reapers in a construct, a physical repository for communication?"

"Not just communication, Reapers exist as much within this body as they do within themselves minds linked, taught merging united in one."

"Then I have made my choice"

Spinning Shepard brought up the Carnifex hand cannon, pumping the trigger. Bullets ripped through the air and into the construct.

"This will change nothing!" the figure wavered as the slugs enveloped in mass effect fields ripped through it "With this construct gone the Reapers will still exist, we will rebuild. WE WILL NOT DIE!" firing the last slugs toward the figure Shepard grunted "I don't have to kill you" as the figure broke apart in a flash of light and a wave of energy throwing Shepard backwards. Crawling to her knees she stared out of the window to see what she was hoping for, Reapers arcing with red lightning just as Sovereign had when Shepard's team had stunned it by killing the Seran construct.

Lifting her arm and seeing that her omni – tool had somehow survived the blast from Hrbinger she opened a channel to the fleets. "This is Shepard, their shields are down, fire now! Alls ships fire!"

Dropping her arm Shepard sank back down seeing the first of the reaper capital ships burst into flame as Thanix cannons ripped through the armour plating, the last things she heard before slipping into darkness was a communication from joker "Hold on commander we're coming to get you, don't you dare die now."

Throughout the system more ships realised the crack in the Reaper's defences, opening fire, on Earth the defenders began the work of driving back the husks, while linked to Reapers they where not dependant, but as more Capital ships fell the cohesion of the attack began to break. Across the Galaxy more systems realised the weakness those on Occupied worlds using artillery and bombardment to finish off Destroyers on the ground as the weakness was exposed.

Shepard woke slowly to the glare of white lights and the smell of antiseptic. Looking round she saw the team standing there with Hacket at the foot of the bed. "Sir" she attempted a salute to find her ham bound in a sling. Hackett smiled and said in a uncharacteristically soft tone "Take it easy there Shepard, you've done more than enough, besides I'll probably be saluting you soon"

Letting that odd comment slide for now Shepard looked around to find herself in the medbay of the Normandy.

"I thought I would be waking up dead, or in a medical facility somewhere" she groaned moving slowly to avoid discomfort. Joker made a face "Yeah that worked real well for you last time didn't it! We weren't letting you out of our sight this time!"

"Joker, it's good to see you, but shouldn't you be flying the ship?"

"Oh EDI's taking care of that for now, besides we're in open space so it's not proper flying anyway, if it was I wouldn't let EDI handle it."

EDI's cool voice cut in over the intercom "I would remind you Jeff that it is within my programming to send us into an asteroid. That was a Joke."

"Well it's good to see she is still fine" quipped Shepard "Where is the rest of the team? They arn't..."

Liara leaned in "no, no they are all fine, but we are still hunting down the last of the Reapers"

"Reapers! I thought we killed them!"

"Only some, Commander." Hackett cut in, "Your intervention gave us an edge, but they recovered before we could destroy all of them, we have fleets out hunting the remainder, however without their Catalyst they are not nearly as effective, still it hasn't been easy we loose ships with every encounter, the Normandy is with Wolfpack one in the traverse, two and three are securing Terminus and Citadel space."

"You in command Hackett?"

"No I was inspecting the fleet and taking to the CO,"

With a hiss the doors slid open.

"Hey Commander, See you finally decided to wake up."

"Vaga!" then as Shepard noted the rank insignia "_Commander _Vega_?"_

"Yeah, well, technically its "acting" until you are back on your feet, someone thaught I could use the "responsibility" whatever that means."

"He's not that bad" Liara cut in "He mostly listens when me or EDI tell him something is wrong, and the amount of suicidal orders has defiantly gone down."

"Watch it T'soni I will get off this bed and hit you if I have to."

"It's good to have you back, it was getting lonely with half the crew gone."

"Gone?"

"Garrus is helping co-ordinate the Turian efforts and Tali is acting as a liaison with the Geth, I did hear Garrus complain about that, something to do with wishing she could liaise with the Turians for a while."

"It's good to see those two came out of all this together. Tell me where did Kaiden go?"

"He has been given his own boat now, Spectere duties don't stop just because we survived the end of the galaxy."

"Speaking of which I should report to the council."

"No need." Hackett cut in "Well not yet, on that point there has been talk of a replacement Councillor for Humanity.

"Me? You can't be serious."

"Deadly, our techs have been crawling all over the citadel we know about the Crucible, the device makes sense when combined with the devices in the hub of the citadel, If you hadn't found a way of stunning the reapers then none of us would have come out of this looking pretty..."

"I know, I was tempted to use it for a while, but I'm no God Hackett. Using Reaper technology is dangerous I had no idea what the result of it would have been. But honestly Admiral, wouldn't you make a better councillor?"

"No I'm just an ageing warhorse, you are the reason we won, the reason we all worked together, although some questions on the Cruicible and the resources it took are going to be asked. Anyway being a councillor is about leadership, not just politics or experience. Of course no-one will force you to volunteer for election, although you should give it some thought. You can't be a soldier forever and after what you've been through nobody would blame you if you retired for good"

"Retirement isn't my thing, although I could do with a chance to stop fighting, at lest for a while, thank you Admiral I will think on this.

"Good, you get some rest, the Galaxy can wait a while more. And you deserve all the rest you need."


End file.
